Property Tax Bill

Tax Terms

Tax Levy: The total amount that will be billed in property taxes.
Assessed Value: An amount determined by the Assessor's office and is used in the calculation of the tax bill of a property owner.
Tax Rate: A rate is developed by dividing the total tax levy by the total assessed value in order to determine each property tax payer's share of the levy.

The Maricopa County Treasurer sends out the property tax bills for local jurisdictions, this includes the county, cities school districts, special taxing districts and the state (not just Maricopa County) based on the assessed values and the calculated rates.
The Maricopa County Supervisors only control a small portion of the property tax bill.
The School District taxes are the largest portion of the property taxes, followed by cities, the community college districts, special districts and the State.

Annually, cities, school districts, special taxing districts and Maricopa County establish their own tax levy, or the amount of taxes that will be billed.
Annually, the Maricopa County Assessor determines the "Full Cash" and "Limited Property" values used to determine the assessed values on the tax bill calculations.
Annually, the tax rate is calculated based on the tax levy for each taxing authority and assessed values by the County Assessor.

Prior to the economic downturn, property values were increasing annually, reaching a high of $58 billion in assessed value in fiscal year 2009.
In addition, new construction was added to the rolls each year, also increasing the assessed value to be taxed.
Both these helped keep the tax rate down.